April 1 Saturday – Bambino, the cat which owned Mark Twain (no one owns a cat) was lost but later in the day came back. Sam had written an ad offering a reward, but canceled before it went into the paper. Still, the NY Herald ran this article on p.9 the following day, Apr. 2:
MARK TWAIN’S CAT CAME BACK.
——
Black Pet Mourned by the Humorist Again Brightens his Home.
April 1 Sunday – Although not cited by Fatout or others, on Apr. 4, Charles F. Powlison for the YMCA wrote from NYC to thank Sam for addressing their Sunday afternoon meeting.
April 1 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “The King came back today with Col. Harvey and he seemed tired. These visitings are a little hard on him. After all he says, “His own bed is so much the best one for him and his own atmosphere” [MTP TS 47].
Carl Kelsey for American Academy of Political and Social Sciences wrote to Sam [MTP]. Note: See Apr. 5 for Sam’s reply.
April 1 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Bermuda: The Bermudian sailed away with such a cargo of folks. The greatest “miss” as these Bermuda darkeys say, is the Waylands.
April 1 Thursday — Sam was in New York, having spent the night at the home of H.H. Rogers. A 3 p.m. he caught the steamer Jefferson for Norfolk, Va. to attend a banquet honoring H.H. Rogers for opening a new railroad there [Mar, 28 to Nunnally]. The New York Times, p.1, Apr. 2, 1909 reported their departure:
H.H. ROGERS OFF TO VIRGINIA.
Mark Twain and Others Accompany Him to the Opening of His Railway.
April 1 Friday
April 1 ca. — In Hamilton, Bermuda Sam wrote to Joe Goodman: “Come on and visit me once before we get so old we can’t hear each other swear” [MTP: San Francisco Examiner, 22 Apt. 1910 ].
April 10 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Mr. Clemens reads to Jean and me in the evenings his ms. of the “Admiral Story.” It is interesting beyond words. Mr. Clemens does probe so into understandings of humanity. He appreciates the beauty of many lives, the fearful tragedies of them—but he won’t admit that they’re anything but machines.
I went down to see Miss Harrison this morning for Mr. Clemens. She is tall, severe, business-like and well worth the ten thousand that Mr. Rogers pays her [MTP: TS 50].
April 10 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote a reply on Edward Everett Hale’s Apr 8. “I had already dismissed the copyright matter from my mind, recognizing that it was too late to accomplish anything with it this year. Therefore I squash my answer to your letter into a simple sentence, to wit:—I haven’t any wish to follow up the copyright matter this year” [MTP].
Sam also replied to the Apr. 8 praise of his A.D. from William Dean Howells:
April 10 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Ambassaodor Charlemagne Tower:
Dear Excellenz: / This is the young gentleman I spoke to you about night before last—Mr. Robert Haven Schauffler. He will explain to you his “Century”-mission to the Vaterland—a matter which promises to be of interest & value to both Germany & America.
April 10 Friday – Several photographs of Mark Twain swimming in the Bahamas are given this date [Bob Slotta, eBay item 180516263500, June 4, 2010; See Hellen Allen’s of Apr. 27, D. Hoffman, picture p. 122]. Note: advertised at that time as the “Only known Under Water Images of him.”
April 10 Saturday — In Redding, Conn., Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Frederick T. Leigh.
“Tell the Major to bring out the Stormfield book at a dollar & we'll see if what he says is true, Nobody’s word is worth a damn anyway, & now we'll have figures to prove it,”’
Dear Major Leigh:
April 10 Sunday — In Bermuda, Sam continued reading Jude the Obscure, by Thomas Hardy [ibid.]
April 11 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Joseph J. Roche.
I am very much obliged to you for sending the Italian clipping to me. We are all glad to know, by the cablegrams, that Genoa treated Mr. Hay well, and that he is improving in the mild climate of Italy. (It is a large ‘we’, there being eighty million of us.) [MTP]. Note: John Hay would die July 1, 1905. See also Roche’s Mar. 30.
April 11 Wednesday – Thomas Bailey Aldrich wrote from the Hotel de France & Choiseul, Paris:
Dear Mark: / I’ve a bit of news which I am sure will interest you, since it is the only happy thing that has befallen this stricken family during the past three years—the engagement of Talbot to a sweet young New England girl, a Miss Eleanor Little. ….
April 11 Thursday – William Dean Howells forwarded to Sam a letter he’d rec’d from Brand Whitlock, dated Apr. 8 from Toledo, Ohio, in which he remarked on how Sam’s Autobiographicals in the N.A.R. reminded him of the “delightful afternoon” spent with him at Sewall’s Bridge. See MTHL 2: 825 for details; see also Aug. 9, 1902. Whitlock was a devoted young friend of Howells.
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Mr. and Mrs. Stanchfield dined here” [MTP TS 51].
April 11 Saturday – In Bermuda, the Clemens party boarded the steamer Bermudian for a return trip to New York. Isabel Lyon’s journal: “We sailed—Josephine Dascomb [sic Daskam Bacon] is killable—the King calls her ‘Josephine Bastard Bacon’” [MTP: IVL TS 45]. Note: see Mar. 29 on Bacon.
April 11 Monday — In Bermuda, Sam finished reading Jude the Obscure, by Thomas Hardy [ibid.]
Robert J. Collier sent a telegram to Sam: “Will have motor meet you Thursday morning hope you are feeling better Sallie sends love / Collier”’ [MTP].
April 12 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: “Wednesday 1/2 treatment Paid / Representative of another Furnace house came to make more estimates” [MTP TS 13]. Note: Swedish Count C. Lewenhaupt gave Sam osteopathic treatments.
April 12 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Here I am missing the sweetest of all sweet chroniclings—the daily life of the King. But I have been so busy, for there is this house to look after, and the Tuxedo house to think of and plan for, and the Redding house to be after too, and Santa to love and be with when she was here and do for, and Jean to be anxious over and to help if I can and her doctors to see, and the King’s social life to look after—for in these days he is very lonely and reaches out for people—and people he must have, so now I’m planning parties for him.
April 12 Sunday – Sam was aboard the Bermudian on the way home to New York. In the Apr. 14 edition of the New York Times, p. 9, Sam related an incident aboard ship:
Mark Twain told of one exciting incident of the voyage home. The ocean he characterized as “most rude.” On Sunday afternoon, dressed in his famous white suit, he was standing at the stern rail with Miss Dorothy Sturgis of Boston, watching the play of the ship’s log, when a wave struck the vessel astern and a great comber climbed over the rail and drenched the pair.
April 12 Monday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Frederick A. Duneka.
Dear Duneka: /PAGE 31 OF VOL I, “Letters of James Russell Lowell.”
That page is what I want, (to read at a banquet to Jerome May 7.) Tear it out & send it to me. It is part of a letter to E. L. Godkin (1869), & is just what I want as a text, in case I should wish to get up & talk. / Ys ever
/ Mark [MTP].
Sam’s new guestbook:
April 12 Tuesday — Sam left Bermuda bound for New York.
April 13 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2:
Mr. Clemens went to meeting of Council of American copyright league, at 4:30. 33 East 17th St.
Mr. R.U. Johnson’s Office—see Page 104
Dentist 11 A.M.
Proof of Mr. Howells appreciation came today. [The article would be published in July’s Harper’s].
Mr. Clemens called at Mr. Coe’s house—
Called also at Miss Clemens’s sanitarium.
Mr. Rogers dined here—Mrs. Rogers is ill [MTP TS 13].